Page 50 of Sugarlips
“Probably wise.” I set the bottle aside. “Wanna share that donut?”
She held her half-eaten donut up to my face and I took a big bite. “Hey!” she laughed. “Don’t eat all of it!”
“Says the girlliterallydouble-fisting baked goods.”
“Well, I had nowhere to go,” she said. “Nothing was open and I wasn’t about to resort to gas station Sara Lee cakes.”
I stared at Chloe sitting there with sweets and tear-stained cheeks as a thought slammed into me. “Oh, my God,” I whispered.
“I know, that’s how desperate I was. Like Little Debbie could compare tothese.”
I shook my head. “No… Chloe… we’ve been doing this all wrong.” I scrambled to kneel in front of her. “We’ve been selling baked goods to people who are dumped… duringthe day? No one gets dumped in the morning on their way to work. Or at lunch Monday through Friday. People wallow atnight. In the privacy of their own homes.”
Chloe’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit. You’re right. No one needs junk food during the day. You need them in the middle of the night!” She shoved the remaining donut in her mouth and pointed to the counter above our heads. “Hand me my phone!”
“Why? What are you doing?”
She grinned at me and wiped her hands on her jeans. “Tell me we have enough inventory and that I didn’t eat it all?” she asked, crossing her fingers.
I nodded. “We have… enough.” I had pre-baked a few dozen donuts. There were plenty of Mac and Cheese balls, cheesecake, and ice cream sandwiches left, too.
“Good. Because I just instagrammed our locationnowto our followers! Let’s get to the town square.”
I stood and offered Chloe my hand. Hers slipped into my palm delicately and I tugged her to her feet. The bravado from moments ago wavered as she stood there looking up at me. “Do you think anyone will come?”
I shrugged. “I think we have literally nothing to lose.”
19
Chloe
Holy shitake. I had no idea there were this many residents I didn’t already know in Maple Grove… let alone ones who were up late and looking for a sugary fix at eleven pm. “Another order of mac & cheese balls!” I called to Liam who was standing at the fryer, already putting together three orders.
“Roger that,” he called back with a heart-melting grin he threw at me from over his shoulder.
Shit. No. No melting of hearts. Not over Liam Evans. I needed to fix this with my sister and do it fast.
“Oops,” Liam said. “After that order, that’s an eighty-six on the mac & cheese balls.”
I paused, narrowing my gaze at Liam and I realized the only number codes I knew were 69 and 420. “And that means…”
His smirk lifted on one side causing a delicious dimple to divot on his cheek. “It means we’re sold out of the mac & cheese balls.”
My eyes widened, and if we hadn’t had a line around the block of people waiting to order, I swear I would have run to Liam and hugged him. “We’ve never sold out of anything before!”
He wiggled his brows before dunking the last of the mac & cheese into the fryer. “Iknow.”
“I guess we need to add more salty things to the menu,” I said as I leaned over the edge of the truck and taped a quickly scribbledsold outsign over the mac & cheese. I heard a few groans from the line as I hung the sign, and I called out, “Sorry, everyone! I promise we’ll have more tomorrow and they are worth the wait! In the meantime, just a reminder, everyone who purchases over $20 gets a voucher for a free beer or glass of wine at Nick’s Pizzeria.”
The next in line, two girls who looked college-aged, walked up and ordered two ice cream sandwiches and three donuts.
“You know,” I said, “if you make that an order of half a dozen donuts, you’ll qualify for that drink voucher at Nick’s.”
The blonde girl looked to her friend who gave a nod and they quickly handed over their credit cards.
“We’re still doing the drink vouchers for Nick after what he said about you?” Liam asked.
I shrugged, boxing up six of the daily donuts for the girls. “A wise man once told me we need to nurture our relationships with other Maple Grove businesses.”
